Room Divider Device

ABSTRACT

A room divider device is comprised of foam panels, supporting poles with extenders and hinges, horizontal tracks, and vertical joiners for creating wall to divide the floor space. The supporting poles are assembled with pole sections and extender accommodating height and slope of ceiling. The swivel hinges are allowing the dividers to be built according to variety of existing wall and ceiling configurations. The foam panels are laid down and connected with the interlocking parts of horizontal tracks and vertical joiners. The grooves on the panels fit to the extruded bars inside of tracks and maintain the position of the panels. The swivel hinges provide the options for connecting walls up to three with various angles from sixty to three hundred degrees. Two different sizes of panels are stacked alternately to build stable and strong walls.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is related to the following provisional patent application:

Application No.: 62/765,894

Filing Date: Sep. 20, 2018

Name Of Applicant: Yoobong Kim, 4434 Palomar Drive, Fallbrook, Calif. 92028

Title Of Invention: Room Divider Device

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention is comprised of long and short foam panels, horizontal long and short tracks, clips for joining the tracks, vertical joiners for joining the panels, supporting poles, hinges, and spacers between the hinges. This device is portable, easy to assemble, and disassemble based on available floor space and wall configuration.

Description of Prior Art

Over the years, many different types of room dividers such as hanging curtains, freestanding folding panels, or non-portable room divider modules have been developed. These devices are used for dividing or segmenting the existing floor spaces for the various uses.

Hanging curtain type: This type of device has no structural wall and the curtain can be misplaced unexpectedly. This results unwanted exposure of the contents inside of the curtain. This type of device does not give a true sense of wall for comfort, security, quietness, and privacy. Example of this type of room divider includes US. Pat. No. 201 2001 81 03 (Ashelin et. al.)

Freestanding folding panels: This type of device is easy to fall down to the floor due to lack of or no supporting from floor to ceiling and wasting the floor space due to chevron shape freestanding. Example of this type of room divider includes U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,632 (Goldstein et. al.)

Non-portable room divider module: These types of devices are available primarily for commercial use. In general, these types of devices are too big and costly for residential use. Some of them have too big gaps in between panels are not desirable for privacy concerns. These types of devices are anchored to floor and are not portable due to difficulty of assembling or disassembling. Examples of these types are U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,723 (Bates), U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,645 (Behr), U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,177 (Hinden), U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,435 (Lopatka), US. Pat. No. 20030163967 (Sims), U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,117 (Leiher et. al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,006 (Medow), German Pat. No. DE202011052302 (Kestel), and German Pat. No. DE2448424 (Korell).

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In this modern world, urban living is essential for jobs, conveniences, social life, and keeping up with changes. The population grows exponentially in the cities and more companies are to be located and expanded in urban areas for better resources and development in business nature. Availabilities of houses are getting less and less. And they are more expensive based on the simple supply and demand principles. Sharing available spaces are absolutely necessary and that is the trend for modern world today. This present invention is created for sharing the existing floor space, helping people in unaffordable housing situations, and providing comfort and privacy in mind without spending a lot of money.

In first embodiment of the present invention, the device is comprised of interlocking panels and tracks for building strong and stable walls. These interlocking parts make assembling or disassembling without tools and provide portability in urban living environment.

In second embodiment of the present invention, the combinations of different size of panels and tracks with hinges provide the flexibilities for building portable walls based on the available spaces with different shapes of floor space and walls.

In third embodiment of the present invention, the panels are made of lightweight foam materials with various options for portability, affordability, privacy, appealing appearance, and noise reduction.

In fourth embodiment of the present invention, the supporting poles from the floor to ceiling provide stability and safety in use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a general layout of the invention with the parts creating walls and corners.

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the long panel with enlarged fragmentary view of one corner of the panel.

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the short panel.

FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of the horizontal long track.

FIG. 5 is a top-down view of the horizontal long track with the enlarged fragmentary view of the end part.

FIG. 6 is a bottom-up view of the horizontal long track.

FIG. 7 is a front perspective view of the horizontal short track.

FIG. 8 is a top-down view of the horizontal short track.

FIG. 9 is a bottom-up view of the horizontal short track.

FIG. 10 is a front perspective view of clip.

FIG. 11 illustrates how the clips in FIG. 10 are used for joining the combinations of horizontal tracks in FIG. 4 and FIG. 7.

FIG. 12 is a front perspective view of vertical joiner.

FIG. 13 illustrates how the vertical joiner in FIG. 12 is used to join the combinations of panels in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 side by side.

FIG. 14 is a front perspective view of the pole section.

FIG. 15 is a front perspective view of the pole riser.

FIG. 16 is a front perspective view of pole extender with exploded see-through view.

FIG. 17 is a front perspective view of pole base.

FIG. 18 is a front perspective view of pole ceiling cap.

FIG. 19 is a front perspective view of assembled pole and showing the enlarged fragmentary views on three different locations of the assembled pole.

FIG. 20 is a front perspective view of hinge

FIG. 21 illustrates how hinge in FIG. 20 is accepting panel and supporting pole.

FIG. 22 is a front perspective view of spacer.

FIG. 23 illustrates how hinges in FIG. 20, spacers in FIG. 22, and supporting pole in FIG. 19 are arranged for beginning or ending wall.

FIG. 24 illustrates how hinges in FIG. 20, spacers in FIG. 22, and supporting pole in FIG. 19 are arranged for corner wall.

FIG. 25 is showing the floor space for building walls as an illustration of this invention and showing the potential location of the first supporting pole.

FIG. 26 is showing how to assemble the first supporting pole.

FIG. 27 is showing how to put horizontal tracks together for the first level.

FIG. 28 is showing how to assemble panels and vertical joiner for the first level and enlarged fragmentary view of joining section with pole, hinge, and panel.

FIG. 29 is showing how to assemble the bottom section of the second pole with pole base, pole section, hinges, and spacer.

FIG. 30 is showing how to assemble tracks for the second level.

FIG. 31 is showing how to use the clips for joining tracks and how to assemble panels and vertical joiners for the second level.

FIG. 32 is showing how to assemble hinges and spacer for the second level.

FIG. 33 is showing how to assemble two tracks for third level.

FIG. 34 is showing how to join tracks with clips for third level.

FIG. 35 is showing how to assemble panels and vertical joiner for third level with enlarged fragmentary view of joining section with pole, hinge, and panel.

FIG. 36 is showing how to assemble tracks for covering top of third level panels and adding another pole section, hinges and spacer to the bottom section of second pole.

FIG. 37 is showing how to join the last tracks with clips.

FIG. 38 is showing how the pole extender in FIG. 16 is working.

FIG. 39 is showing how to assemble the ceiling cap in FIG. 18 into the pole extender in FIG. 16.

FIG. 40 is showing how to tighten the poles as the final step with the enlarged fragmentary view of the pole extender FIG. 16.

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN DRAWINGS

-   -   20 Long horizontal track     -   24 Short horizontal track     -   30 Vertical joiner     -   40 Hinge     -   46 Spacer     -   50 Clip     -   60 Long panel     -   64 Short panel     -   70 Supporting pole         -   72 Pole section         -   74 Pole base         -   76 Pole extender             -   82 Pole extender coupling nut             -   83 Pole extender bottom anchor bolt             -   85 Pole extender top anchor bolt         -   78 Pole ceiling cap         -   80 Pole riser

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 shows a general layout of the invention for building two walls joined 90 degree as an example. All necessary components; horizontal tracks 20, vertical joiners 30, two different sizes of foam panels 60 and 64, hinges 40, spacer 46, and supporting pole 70 are illustrated as they may appear after completing the intended wall for dividing floor space.

Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are the front perspective views of long panel 60 and short panel 64 respectively. The enlarged fragmentary view of corner of the long panel 60 shows the male part of interlock part 68 and groove 66 in detail. The shape of the short panel 64 is identical to the half of the long panel 60. The width of the short panel 64 is slightly shorter than one half of the width of the long panel 60 in order to align all the connections together. Both panels are made of foam for reducing noise, providing portability due to lightweight, and making economical sense due to low cost material. For these panels 60 and 64, many options can be considered for colors, designs, and coated or laminated with durable materials.

Referring to FIG. 4-FIG. 6, FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 are three different views of the horizontal long track 20. FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of the horizontal long track 20. FIG. 5 is a top-down view of the horizontal long track 20. In FIG. 5, the enlarged fragmentary view of one end of the long track 20 is added for the detailed close up view. FIG. 6 is a bottom-up view of the horizontal long track 20. The shape of horizontal track 20 is resemblance of the I-Beam in small scale. The horizontal long track 20 has two small rectangle cutouts 22 on the bottom of both ends of the front and back faces 25 of the horizontal long track 20. These rectangle cutouts 22 are accepting clips 50 for joining tracks together and maintaining the tracks' positions. In FIG. 5, the horizontal long track 20 has eight vertical extruded rectangle bars 26 are located inside wall on the top of the baseboard 28. In FIG. 6, another eight extruded rectangle bars 26 are located underneath of the baseboard 28. These extruded bars 26 on the top in FIG. 5 and bottom in FIG. 6 are lined up.

Referring FIG. 7-FIG. 9, FIG. 7, FIG. 8, and FIG. 9 are three different views of the horizontal short track 24. FIG. 7 is a front perspective view of the horizontal short track 24. FIG. 8 is a top-down view of the horizontal short track 24. FIG. 9 is a bottom-up view of the horizontal short track 24. The shape of horizontal short track 24 is resemblance of I-Beam in small scale. The horizontal short track 24 has two small rectangle cutouts 22 on the bottom of both ends of the front and back faces 25 of the horizontal short track 24. These rectangle cutouts 22 are accepting clips 50 for joining tracks together and maintaining tracks' positions. In FIG. 8, the horizontal short track 24 has four vertical extruded rectangle bars 26 are located inside wall on the top of the baseboard 28. In FIG. 9, another four extruded rectangle bars 26 are located underneath the baseboard 28. These extruded bars 26 on the top in FIG. 8 and bottom in FIG. 9 are lined up. The panels 60 and/or 64 are laying on the baseboard 28 inside tracks and the grooves 66 from the panels 60 or 64 are aligned with these vertical extruded bars 26 inside tracks. The length of the horizontal short track 24 is one half of the long horizontal track 20 lengthwise.

Referring to FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, FIG. 10 is showing the clips 50 and FIG. 11 illustrates how to use the clip 50 with the tracks 20 and/or 24. The clips 50 are placed on the both sides of the tracks 20 or 24 to keep the tracks straight and strong connection.

Referring to FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, FIG. 12 shows the perspective view of the vertical joiner 30. The vertical joiner 30 has the cutout through grooves 32 lengthwise on both sides of the vertical joiner 30 creating female interlock parts. FIG. 13 illustrates how the vertical joiner 30 is used to join the panels 60 and/or 64. First, the female interlock part 32 of the vertical joiner 30 is sliding down to the male part 68 of the panel 60 or 64. And then, the male interlock part 68 of the panel 60 or 64 is sliding down into the female interlock part 32 of the vertical joiner 30. The vertical joiner 30 joins two panels 60 and/or 64 side by side and keeps the entire wall straight and strong.

Referring to FIG. 14-FIG. 18, FIG. 14 is the pole section 72 with female screw 73 on one end and male screw 75 on the other end. FIG. 15 is the pole riser 80 with female screw 73 on one end and male screw 75 on the other end. The pole riser 80 can be used for accommodating the higher ceiling. FIG. 16 is the pole extender 76 with the exploded see-through view of the inside of pole extender coupling nut 82. The pole extender 76 is comprised of three subcomponents; pole extender coupling nut 82 having a witness hole 81 for easy turn. The pole extender bottom anchor bolt 83 is having female thread 73, and the pole extender top anchor bolt 85 is having male thread 85. The height of the pole can be adjusted by turning the extender coupling nut 82 clockwise or counterclockwise. FIG. 17 is the pole base 74 is having male screw on the top. The pole base 74 is coated with non-skid material such as rubber material. FIG. 18 is a front perspective view of pole ceiling cap 78 with female screw on the bottom. The pole ceiling cap 78 has the swivel rectangle rubberized surface 77 on top for accommodating the sloped ceiling. The head of ceiling support 77 is wider than its body for protecting ceiling from over tightening pole and free from the rotating.

Referring to FIG. 19, FIG. 19 is a perspective view of the supporting pole 70 assembled with the parts mentioned in PARA 20. FIG. 19 is also showing three enlarged fragmentary views in three joining areas. These enlarged fragmentary views are detailed for how the sub-components are connected and operating. The supporting pole 70 is comprised of pole base 74, two long sections 72, pole extender 76, pole riser 80 (if needed based on the height of wall), and pole ceiling cap 78.

Referring to FIG. 20 and FIG. 21, FIG. 20 is a perspective view of the hinge 40. The hinge 40 has two cut-through channels; one is a capital letter T-shape cut-through 42 creating female interlock 44 for accepting the male part of interlocking end part 68 of panel 60 and the other cut-through is the hole 48 with boss 46 (raised ring) for accepting the supporting pole 70. The boss 48 maintains the spaces between hinges 40. The FIG. 21 depicts how the hinge 40 is accepting supporting pole 70 and panel 60.

Referring to FIG. 22-FIG. 24, FIG. 22 is a perspective view of the spacer 46. The spacer 46 is a short cylinder with center through hole 48 accepting the supporting pole 70. FIG. 23 shows how the hinges 40, spacers 46, and supporting pole 70 are arranged for the beginning or ending wall setting. FIG. 24 shows how the hinges 40, spacers 46, and supporting pole 70 are arranged for the corner wall setting. The spacers 46 are placed after every four hinges 40 stacked on the supporting pole 70. The height of the spacer is the same as the thickness of the baseboard 28 of the horizontal long tracks 20 or horizontal short tracks 24.

Assembling Procedure of the Invention

Assembling procedure of the invention for building a wall six feet wide and four and half feet height as follow:

Step 1—Preparing the floor space (see FIG. 25)

The increments of the device are eighteen inches vertically and horizontally. The floor for installing the device must be leveled and cleared from any obstructions and the location of the first pole must be identified based on the configuration of the space.

Step 2—Setting up the initial supporting pole (see FIG. 26)

Each supporting pole 70 requires one pole base 74, two pole long sections 72, one pole extender 76, one pole ceiling cap 78, pole riser 80 (if needed, depending on the height of ceiling) and twelve hinges 40 and three spacers.

-   -   A. Assemble the pole base 74 to the pole section 72 by screwing         clockwise the male side screw 75 of the pole base 74 into the         female side screw 73 of the pole section 72.     -   B. Connect one more pole section 72 to the assembly from PARA 65         A.     -   C. Slide down four hinges 40 and one spacer 50 over the assembly         from PARA 65 B and repeat two more times.     -   D. Connect pole extender 76 to the top of assembly from PARA 65         C.     -   E. Connect the pole ceiling cap 78 to the assembly from PARA         65 D. This assembly becomes the pole 70.     -   F. Place the assembled pole 70 from PARA 65 E on the location         determined from PARA 64 Step 1.     -   G. Plumb the assembled pole 70 and tightened by rotating the         coupling nut 82 counterclockwise.

For the high ceiling, the pole riser 80 can be inserted in between the pole extender 76 and the pole ceiling cap 78.

Step 3—Laying down horizontal tracks for first layer (see FIG. 27)

Place the horizontal long track 20 along the line of future wall to be built next to the assembled pole 70 and continue connecting another horizontal long track 20 by using the clip 50. If desired, more horizontal long track 20 or horizontal short tracks 24 can be connected depending on the length of wall to be built. In order to build six feet width wall, two horizontal long tracks 20 are required or for four and half feet width wall, one horizontal short track 24 and one horizontal long track 20 are required. It is recommended that additional poles 70 should be placed every six feet. Next, turn four hinges 40 from the bottom assembled first pole 70 so that the female interlocks 42 facing to the direction of the horizontal long tracks 20 and the rest of hinges 40 facing the opposite direction of the horizontal tracks 20 laid on the floor.

Step 4—Installing panels and vertical joiners for the first level (see FIG. 28)

Slide down the male interlock 68 of the first long panel 60 through the female side interlocks 42 of all four hinges 40. The long panel 60 should be pushed all the way down to the baseboard 28 of the horizontal long track 20. All grooves 66 on both sides of long panel 60 should be lined up with the extruded vertical bars 26 inside wall of the horizontal long track 20. Next, slide down the female interlock 32 of the vertical joiner 30 through the male interlock 68 of the long panel 60 below. In a similar manner, another long panel 60 is installed next to the vertical joiner 30.

Step 5—Installing bottom section of the second supporting pole (see FIG. 29)

At this point, considering the number of walls up to three connections: capital letter L shape, capital letter T shape, and Straight. For this illustration, only one straight wall will be built without connecting additional walls.

-   -   A. Create bottom section of second pole by assembling pole base         74 and one pole section 72.     -   B. Place the assembled bottom section of pole from PARA 69 A         next to the end of second horizontal long track 20 on the floor.     -   C. Slide down four hinges 40 through the assembled bottom         section of pole and engage the female interlock 42 of all four         hinges 40 with the male interlock 68 of long panel 60.     -   D. Slide down one spacer 46 on the top of the hinges 40.

Step 6—The procedure to build second layer is identical to the procedure as the first layer built except using three panels (short panel 64, long panel 60, and short panel 64 in order) instead of two long panels 60 (see FIG. 30-FIG. 32).

-   -   A. Turn the second set of four hinges 40 (above the first set of         bottom four hinges 40) aligning with the bottom four hinges 40         and lay down two horizontal long tracks 20 on the top of the         first layer panels 60 (see FIG. 30).     -   B. Join two horizontal long tracks 20 with two clips 50 for         front and back of the tracks 20 (see FIG. 31).     -   C. Install short panel 64, vertical joiner 30, long panel 60,         vertical joiner 30, and short panel 64 in order (see FIG. 31).     -   D. Slide down four hinges 40 and one spacer 46 on the top of the         second pole 72 (see FIG. 32).

Step 7—The procedure to build third level is identical to the procedure as the first layer built with two long panels 60 (see FIG. 33-FIG. 35).

-   -   A. Lay down two horizontal long tracks 20 on the top of the         second layer (see FIG. 33).     -   B. Join two horizontal long tracks 20 with the clip 50 and then         turn the last four hinges on the first pole lined up with tracks         20 (see FIG. 34).     -   C. Slid down the long panel 60, vertical joiner 30, and long         panel 60 in order on the tracks below (see FIG. 35).

Step 8—Finishing the wall (see FIG. 36-FIG. 40)

At the end of wall, screw down the second pole section 72 on the top of the first pole section 72. Next, slid down four hinges 40, and then one more spacer 46 on the top (see FIG. 36). Follow the next steps to complete:

-   -   A. Lay down the last two horizontal long tracks 20 joining with         clip 50 on the top of third layer panels (see FIG. 36 and FIG.         37).     -   B. Set the pole extender 76 as shortest length by turning the         pole extender coupling nut 82 clockwise (FIG. 38) and connect         pole ceiling cap 78 (see FIG. 39).     -   C. Measure the distance from the top of the pole section 72 to         ceiling and the distance should be less than one and half feet.         If the distance is more than one and half feet, add the pole         riser 80 to the pole extender 76.     -   D. Connect the top assembled pole section from PARA 72 B and C         to top of pole section 72 (see FIG. 40).     -   E. The entire pole must be plumbed and tighten the pole by         turning pole extender nut 82 counterclockwise (see FIG. 40).

ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF THE INVENTION

Versatility; Choices of colors and decorative faces (raised or caved) of panels are the features of this invention. And also adding openings or doors are also the feature of this invention.

The specificities contained in this invention should not be construed as limiting the scope of this invention. For example, the design of the panels including shapes, sizes, colors, and decorations is not limited to the description used above. The invention is designed for adding doors and openings at any locations if desired. 

I claim:
 1. The hinge of this invention provides flexibility to build wall sections any angles in between sixty degree and three hundred degree.
 2. The invention is portable and reusable due to the foam wall panels and the interlocking feature for easy assembling and disassembling. 